A comparative evidence of income levels reflecting gen Z's digital payments intention and usage

Abstract

The study investigating e-payment services intention and use behavior of generation Z - knowing as the digital native cohort. To better understand the effect of financial volatility, the present study has categorized the study groups into low-income and high-income levels in accordance with Thai minimum wages. The UTAUT theory has been adopted to examining Gen Z's intention and behavior toward using e-payment services. The factors comprising of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence expectancy, facilitating conditions affecting behavioral intention and use behavior. Thus, there was five main hypothesizes have developed based on the utilized theory. The findings illustrate the significant differences between the two study groups. The behavior of using e-payment services is significantly distinct by the high-income level of Gen Z would rather using the services than the low-income. For Gen Z who earn a low income, there is one hypothesis that is rejected - effort expectancy affecting behavioral intention. On the other hand, for the higher-income, two hypotheses have not been confirmed which are performance expectancy and social influence expectancy positively influence behavioral intention. Among those supported hypotheses, the effect of intention on use behavior is the strongest path relationship for both low-income (β = 0.761) and high-income levels (β = 0.576).